Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, I Want To Feel Artsy

As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to give up on waiting for my tax refund and/or bonus – or for anyone to make use of the “Donate” button – and went ahead and plunked down the cash for a shiny new Wacom Cintiq 27QHD Touch.
Yes, it was a lot of money to spend – nearly as much as I spent on the custom-built, high-powered desktop PC it’s connected to – and, realistically, it was a total waste of money, because, seriously, this is the sort of thing that successful, professional artists would think more than twice about splurging on, so a semi-talented amateur like myself has no business spending that kind of money on something that, ultimately, is probably just going to frustrate me because having all of that creative power at my fingertips can’t make up for the limitations of my talent and skill, and it will never, ever (ever) pay for itself.
Hell, the last one, which was $800 cheaper than this one, never managed to pay for itself.
So, yes.  It was a waste.
But it’s a beautiful waste that did at least provide me with one shining moment of joy as I removed it from its packaging, laid my eyes on it, and heard Etta James in my head singing, “My lonely days are over and life is like a song.”
Of course, somewhat later, I heard MC Chris – as Sir Loin (formerly MC Pee Pants) – saying, “I can’t fill the hole in my life with things,” but still, as I placed it on my kitchen table and stepped back to admire it, I did my customary dorky clap/giggle combo.

I also giggled because I thought, "That things huge," and then thought, "That's what she said."  I'm twelve.

I should mention that Etta James crooning “At Last” in my head was inspired in part by the fact that I had to wait longer than I had expected before I actually received the thing.  I’d ordered it on a Thursday, and, thinking, “In for a penny, in for a pound,” sprung for the overnight air option.  I didn’t anticipate actually getting it the next day, given that I’d ordered it fairly late in the day, but I figured I’d get it by Monday.  Tuesday at the latest.
In fact, I was really hoping that it would be one of those days, as I was going to be in a virtual training for the first three days of the following week, which meant working from home – my cubicle isn’t exactly the ideal distraction-free environment – which meant that I didn’t have to get up as early, which, in turn, meant that I could stay up later on Monday and Tuesday, giving me more time to get it set up and to start using it.
However, every time I checked on the status of my order at the Wacom store it only showed it as “submitted” and said that there was no tracking number available.  Finally, on Tuesday, I got an e-mail from UPS telling me that it had shipped and would arrive on Wednesday.
Class wrapped up early on Wednesday, so I would have had a few more hours to get it set up, but it didn’t actually arrive until the early evening.
I had just enough time to get it set up before I had to start preparing for bed, and I really didn’t get to use it all because I immediately ran into a problem.
The Cintiq has a resolution of 2,560x1,440, which is a resolution that the aging graphics card in my PC could support…but not with the connection options available.  That resolution requires a DVI-I Dual-Link connection.  The Cintiq only supports Displayport or HDMI, and when connected via HDMI (of the two types that was the only one available on my card), it was limited to 1,920x1,080, which left a lot of dead space on the edges, and was a complete waste of the Cintiq’s potential.
So a new graphics card was required, which was fine, as I’d been thinking about getting a new one anyway, but I didn’t have time to run out and buy one and install it.  So that had to wait until the next day.

Set up with its siblings, a 29" ultra-widescreen monitor and a 24" monitor.

Once that was accomplished, I ran into my first problem with it.  When I’d connected it via HDMI the night before, I’d gone though the calibration, which determines where the actual point on the screen is in relation to the tip of the pen.  At the native resolution, the calibration was way off.  I attempted to re-calibrate it, using the Tablet PC settings in Windows itself, and via the Wacom software, but neither would let me actually calibrate.  The Tablet PC calibration tool would show me the crosshairs, but would completely ignore my taps.  The Wacom tool wouldn’t even give me the crosshairs.
Neither tool gave me the option to reset to the default.  So I uninstalled the Wacom software, which reset the calibration to the default, and then reinstalled it.  I’m still unable to perform the calibration, which is annoying, because seriously, shit should work, but not really a major issue, as the default is actually pretty good, and probably better than what I would be able to manage if I did my own calibration anyway.
Once all of that was taken care of, and I had some time to start playing around with it, and here’s what I’ve noted so far.

Pressure Sensitivity and Palm Rejection
I found that while 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity – compared to the 1,024 of the old Cintiq, and the 256 of my Surface Pro 3* – is probably around 2,044 levels more than I’m capable of using consistently, it’s also pretty amazing, and does make lines of incredibly varying thickness (theoretically) possible.
That my Frankenstein hands are physically incapable of much in the way of subtle gradations of pressure should in no way take away from the Cintiq’s capabilities in this regard.  The thing is amazing.

Some random strokes demonstrating the 27QHD's capabilities and Jon's limitations.

Given that, unlike the Cintiq it’s replacing, the 27QHD also features multi-point capacitive touch, palm rejection, that is, ignoring errant touches from your palm while the pen is in use, is essential, and this is another area in which the 27QHD excels.  If anything, it sometimes works a little too well, ignoring my attempts to use my fingers to pinch-zoom or rotate the canvas if I try doing so with the same hand that’s holding the pen if the pen is still too close to the screen, even though the tip is pointed away from it.  That minor annoyance aside – really I just have to modify my workflow – it’s pretty impressive, especially compared to my Surface Pro 2, which also uses a Wacom digitizer and would periodically accept touch input even while the pen was in use, leading to some random smudges, or closed tool panel or window.
Of course, the palm rejection does get by with a little help from its friends, as Photoshop ignores all touch other than actual gestures (rotate, pinch to zoom) in the active drawing area by default.  At least I assume it’s the default; that’s how it’s been since they’ve updated to the touch-friendly version, and if it’s a setting, I don’t know how to get to it.
Mischief, a nice, lightweight drawing program that I like a lot, takes it to an extreme.  Not only does it ignore any and all touch beyond actual gestures, whenever it’s not minimized it disables all other touch, period.  That is, I can’t actually interact with Windows itself via touch while using Mischief until I minimize the program to the taskbar.  Given that I’ve never observed this behavior on the SP2 or SP3, I’m assuming this is some sort of bug.
Manga Studio, however, does not reject errant touches, and I find that I have to be munch more careful that that pen is always active when I’m drawing, otherwise I end up with random strokes appearing on the canvas, or I’ll end up closing a tool palette or changing the active layer.
I should also mention that there is little or no lag; strokes on the screen flow pretty smoothly as I move, and feel very natural and fluid, even in Photoshop, where there had been considerable lag with my previous Cintiq.

ExpressKey Remote
My old Cintiq had a set of “ExpressKeys” on either side, which performed various functions and were customizable.  For example, there was a long, thin strip that would zoom a drawing in and out, an undo button, and so on.  Later iterations of the Cintiq, such as the 22 and 24-inch versions, further enhanced the functionality of these keys.
The 27QHD, however, removes the keys from the Cintiq itself and places them on a small, separate device, the Express Key Remote.
Being a separate device allows for greater flexibility, and not having the ExpressKeys on the Cintiq itself makes for a sleeker appearance.  Additionally, on the old Cintiq, I had to disable the ExpressKeys on the right side, as I kept bumping them with my elbow and unexpectedly zooming in or undoing my last stroke.
However, the base of the Remote is magnetic, so you can place on the Cintiq’s bezel for easy, familiar access.
I’m still getting used to the Remote, as it has a lot more functionality than what had been available on my old Cintiq, and I have difficulty remembering which button does what.  Additionally, because it runs on a rechargeable battery – it charges via USB and can be plugged into one of the available ports on the Cintiq itself to do so – after a certain period of inactivity it shuts itself off, so when I get distracted while drawing and then return to the 27QHD later, I often find that I’m pushing a button and nothing is happening.

The Major Complaints
As mentioned, the fact that I can’t get the calibration to work is annoying, even though I’m terrible at calibrating screens anyway.  Shit should work.
I’ve been using Wacom products since 2001, though originally I was limited to the non-display tablets, such as you find in their Intuous line of products, and in all that time one thing has remained consistent:  sometimes the driver just craps out and stops working.
I’ll be in the middle of drawing something and then bring the pen down to add another stroke and…nothing.  I might as well be trying to draw on my TV.  Going into Control Panel and launching the Wacom software results in an error message claiming that the driver isn’t installed.  Typically, the functionality can be restored by going into Task Manager and stopping/re-starting the Wacom Service, but that generally only works temporarily, and at some point the only option left is to reboot.
Fortunately, it’s not a frequent problem, but the unpredictable nature of it makes it a major annoyance, especially given the expense of the device.  Again, shit should work.
My final complaint is kind of nit-picky, I suppose, but it concerns the bundled third-party software.  As the registered owner of a nearly $3,000 device, I received a special offer for free software that can unleash the power of my Cintiq.  By which I mean either free trials of software, or free versions of software (such as Autodesk Sketchbook Express) that are free for anyone, regardless of whether they’ve given a single cent to Wacom.  Sure, there’s also a bit of a discount on some of the full versions, but it’s still an extremely weak offer.

The Results
Time and ambition constraints have meant that I haven’t spent a whole lot of time actually using the 27QHD beyond simply attempting to get the hang of it and figuring out how to adapt my workflow to make efficient use of its capabilities, but I did do this quick picture of Bettie Page as part of a shakedown run.




Wrap Up
Ultimately, no expensive new piece of technology, except maybe some futuristic cybernetic implants and prosthetics that don’t exist yet, is going to make me a better artist, and it wasn’t my expectation that the 27QHD would do that.  It will, once I get more accustomed to it, make me more efficient in a lot of ways, and the higher resolution and pressure sensitivity will likely have some impact on the overall appearance of my finished work, though, and while that hit to my wallet still stings a little, if nothing else I’ll always have that moment when I stood back and admired its beauty.




*Oh, yeah.  I bought a Surface Pro 3 on Black Friday.  That will be the subject of its own post.

Anyone Got An Extra $2800 Lying Around?

And while you're at it, you might as well thrown in an extra $400 for the stand...
In my last post I made a reference to how the one thing I really wanted for Christmas (I didn't get it, in case you were wondering) was a Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch.
It's just as well that no one was up for getting me one, as Wacom just announced the Cintiq 27QHD.



Which is what I want, not for Christmas, but right now.
Right.  This.  Second.
Of course, that's not actually possible, as it's not for sale yet (but will be soon), but even so, I want one ASAP.
So...who's going to buy one for me?
...
Don't all raise your hands at once...
Honestly, apart from the whole "Ooooh, shiny and new!" thing, the fact of the matter is that my current, much-earlier generation Cintiq is nearly six years old - which makes it positively ancient in technological terms - and it's beginning to show signs of its age and the general wear-and-tear of constant use, so I really do need (for a given value of "need," I suppose) to invest in a replacement.
And, come bonus/tax refund time, there's a good chance that I will grit my teeth buy one my damn self.
That said, if you look over to the right and scroll down a bit, you'll notice that there is a "donate" button - which has never in the history of its existence been clicked on, or if it has, has never led to anyone actually donating - so, you know, it would be possible to contribute to a "Jon's Colossal Waste of Money" fund, which would help defray at least some of the costs.
Just throwing that out there.

Poor Craftsman

They say it’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools.
To which I say, “So?”
I don’t necessarily disagree with the point.  After all, some people are poor craftsmen.  What of it?
That being said, sometimes poor craftsmanship can be exacerbated by poor tools, or at least inconsistent tools.
As an “artist,” I do most of my work in Photoshop, in large part because it’s what I’m most familiar with.  After all, I’ve been working in it for almost 15 years, and for several of those years I did so in a professional capacity.
Beyond that, it’s a very powerful tool, both for image manipulation and adjustment, and for image creation.  It has many tools that work very much like their real-world equivalents, all of which have additional capabilities that can’t be matched – at least not easily – through the use of more traditional tools and media.
Paired up with my Wacom Cintiq, it makes the experience of creating art (“art”) in a digital medium a much more natural experience.  (It also makes it really damned expensive, but that’s beside the point.)
That said, it’s not without its limitations.
Some of them are just inherent to a digital workflow, or to the various peculiarities of the Photoshop interface and its rather steep learning curve.  However, while there are still things I’m learning about what Photoshop can do after 15 years – particularly as new versions come along and add new features, or change the way existing features are accessed – for the most part I’ve adapted to those peculiarities in one way or another.
Lately, though, I’ve been running into a lot of new frustrations that have been pushing me into areas that lead to accusations of poor craftsmanship.
I’m not sure where the fault lies – I’m sure there’s plenty of blame to go around – but I often say that the cause is rarely as important as the effect, and effect has been pretty damned annoying.
So it doesn’t matter to me if the problem is with Photoshop, with Windows, with the Wacom drivers, with my video card’s drivers, or with all of them.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I’ll use an analogy based on working in traditional media.

Imagine that you have a piece of paper and a pencil and you sit down at a desk to draw something.  Frequently, as you touch the tip of the pencil to the paper, the color of the desk you’re working on will suddenly change color.  What was brown is now green.  Now it’s brown again.  It’s distracting, and annoying, but not completely disruptive, given that your focus is on the paper.
However, every so often, the paper itself suddenly turns completely transparent.
And all the while your pencil keeps periodically transforming itself into a leaky fountain pen.

Poor craftsman or not, I think you’d be justified in complaining about your tools.

Y U No Draw?

Because it’s a thousand degrees outside.  Even with the A/C running it’s still pretty hot in my house, especially upstairs, and this is exacerbated by the fact that my Cintiq acts like a space heater.

If I try drawing, I may very well ignite.

Oh, And This

For those of you who can't watch the video, here's something to look at.
This is the picture I was experimenting with in the video, which I said I might not finish, as the point of it was just to play around with some of the Cintiq's features. This is about as finished as it's likely to get, so here you go:



The person pictured is an actress named Aviva. She's probably most known for her role as Nicola in the movie Superbad. She was the girl that hooked up with McLovin. Oh, umm, spoiler alert, I guess.
Obviouslsy this looks a bit different from my usual work. That's because the Cintiq lends itself to working freehand a little better than my tablet did, so I decided to take advantage of that with this little experiment.
Normally I use the Pen tool to block out the shapes, then fill in the details - shadings, highlights, and features - in freehand. I may make a video demonstrating that at some point, but it probably won't end up posted here.
In this case I sketched out the entire image freehand, then painted over the sketch.

A Facebook Broadcast Premiere

I've been trying in vain to get my Cintiq demonstration video to post here.
The video upload progress thing just keeps spinning and it's clear that nothing is actually happening. No idea why, and, of course, the Internet failed miserably at providing any help.
The video is in an accepted format - .wmv - and, at about 7 MB is well below the 100 MB file size limit. I've tried uploading it in multiple browsers - including Google Crhome - with no luck, so I'm forced to conclude that the Blogger video upload feature sucks.
In any case, I posted it to Facebook. It's set to be viewable by "everyone," but I'm not sure if that includes people who aren't on Facebook, but, if you're dying to see it, click on the link to my Facebook profile and give it a shot.
(Hmm, the answer appears to be, "No, people who aren't on Facebook can't see it.")
Not much new or interesting happened today, or, really, since the last time I posted anything substantial.
I went to work, stopped at the Chiropractor on the way home, got home, sat down and watched some recorded TV, dozed in the chair, ate some kind of dinner, watched more TV, posted the video to Facebook, and that pretty much covers it.

Jon's Understatement of the Day Department:
At the Chiropractor, the doctor performed an adjustment that led to a whole lot of cracking and popping and hurt like hell. I summed up the experience by saying, "Well, that was unpleasant."

Putting Cute Animals In Their Place Department:
Scott directed me to this site today, a blog devoted to viciously tearing into various animals for daring to be so goddamned adorable. It's a bizarre concept that's brilliantly executed. Warning: contains language.

The Gaiman Report Department:
Author Neil Gaiman will be the guest on tonight's episode of The Colbert Report. What more do you need to know?

Some Problems Solved, Other Problems Identified, Including Some Mental Problems

I got up this morning and engaged in the usual ritual of sitting around for a while before finally showering, dressing, and heading out into the world.
After hitting the comic shop I swung by Staples.
In playing around with the Cintiq – I’m thinking about using my webcam to record a video of the Cintiq in action – I’d found that the biggest problem was where to put it when I’m actually using it. When not being used it’s simply serving as my secondary monitor, and rests in the spot where I’d formerly placed my old 20.1” monitor, which isn’t really suitably positioned for drawing on it.
However, I had difficulty moving it directly in front of me, as the cable wouldn’t quite reach, and if I tilted it back to a comfortable angle it would bump into my main monitor, or else it would be partly obscuring the main monitor.
The latter point was something of an issue, as I want to use the main monitor to display the reference image I’m working from. Also, I have Photoshop open on the main monitor with all of my tools, while the image I’m actually drawing is displayed on the Cintiq, allowing me to devote its full screen real estate as my canvas, while leaving my main monitor as my tool box (I have one of the keys on the side of the Cintiq programmed to toggle which display I’m using. One click and I’m controlling the cursor on the main monitor; click again and I’m back to the Cintiq. This = teh awesome). Having the Cintiq blocking the monitor blocked my access to the tools hidden behind it.
So, long story already long, I stopped at Staples to pick up some things that would help me resolve these problems.
The first item was a monitor stand, which would provide clearance for tilting the Cintiq back while it’s in front of me and still allow me a full view of the main monitor.
Also, with my old desk I’d been accustomed to the monitor being higher up anyway, so two birds, one stone. Or rather, two monitors, one monitor stand.
One other drawback to my new desk has been that there’s no shelf for the computer itself, so the computer has been set directly on the floor. I didn’t like that, as I’m not thrilled with the idea of an expensive piece of electronic equipment resting directly on the static-charged carpet.
So the second item I picked up was a little cart/stand for the computer. This serves the function of getting the computer off the carpet and providing a little more slack for the Cintiq’s cable, which allows me to place it directly in front of me.
I’m a problem-solver!
I’m also kind of dumb.
Now that my old 20.1” monitor is essentially a spare, I decided that I would set up Munin, my old computer, in the room I refer to as “the library.” (It’s my intention to eventually make that room more library-ish, but for right now it’s just the spare bedroom that I’ve dumped all of my comic books in.)
In any case, it occurred to me that in order to hook the 20.1” monitor up to Munin I’d need a DVI cable. I didn’t think I had a spare one lying around, and I wasn’t able to find one. So while I was at Staples I looked around to see if they sold DVI cables. They only had one, which was 10’ long – much more than I need – and didn’t have a price. I decided to skip it and take another look when I got home to see if I had a spare.
On the way home something occurred to me. The Cintiq came with a DVI cable built in, and, if I stopped to remember removing the 20.1” monitor on Wednesday, I would realize that I disconnected a DVI cable from the back of the computer. A DVI cable that’s still connected to the currently dormant 20.1” monitor.
This was, literally, a “Well, duh” moment, which was followed by a “God you’re stupid” moment.
(I’ve mentioned this in the past, but the pronoun I use in my head [or out loud] to refer to myself changes with my mood. Sometimes I think of myself as “I,” other times it’s “We,” but more often than not it’s “You.” Why? We I don’t know. Mental problems, I suppose.)
Once I got home and finished setting up the various stands and confirming that my solution actually solved my problems, I set about hooking Munin up in the library.
(Actually, I watched some recorded TV first.)
I thought that I was going to have to engage in some troubleshooting to figure out the power problems that Munin has been having, but once I had it hooked up it powered up normally with no issues. Well, there was one issue; I had to restart it once to get the wireless adapter to come on, but it was at least booting up fully and seemed to be working.
Naturally, as it’s been turned off for months, it had to download some updates, which required a restart. I set it to restart and left the room.
When I came back I found that it hadn’t restarted, it had turned off.
I hit the power button to turn it back on. No joy.
At this point I’m assuming that it’s a problem with the power supply. I have two options: I can buy a new power supply, or cannibalize the power supply from my third desktop.
Ultimately I decided that I didn’t feel like doing anything with it right now (Hey Scott: want to help with a power supply swap on Wednesday?), and just left things as they are.
What I might end up doing is simply taking the hard drive out of Munin and putting it into Hugin, as my main concern is preserving the data. For example, I have my comic book database on Munin’s hard drive.
Of course, I’d also like to have a secondary desktop set up. I could just use the old Munin, but with its skimpy on-board graphics it can’t really push enough pixels for the 20.1” monitor, so I’ll probably go the power supply route.
Anyway, I know I haven’t posted much this week, but you really haven’t been missing anything. I’ll probably do a fill in the blanks post tomorrow, if I don’t do the video post.
Anyway, here are some pictures:



The setup when the Cintiq is not being used for drawing.



The setup when I’m using the Cintiq.


Bonus pictures:


The Wonder Woman action figure that came with the Blu-ray of the animated movie.



My other recent major purchase, though it was actually close to ten times cheaper than the Cintiq.

Two Words

I got my Wacom Cintiq (my new $2,000 toy) yesterday - I had it delivered to my work so as to avoid having to worry about being home to sign for it - and while I got it hooked up yesterday, it was Riff Trax night (We watched the MST3K of an old Steve Reeves Hercules movie and an iRiff of Star Wars Episoce IV: A New Hope), so I didn't get to play with it much.
So that's what I'm doing now, which means no proper post.
And how is my new toy, you ask?
Two words: fucking awesome.

Ow

That hurt.
For as long as I've known they've existed, I've wanted a Wacom Cintiq.
Actually, I've wanted one since before I even knew they existed, or at least I often imagined having something like it that allows me to draw directly on the computer screen.
I wasn't sure, though, that there would ever come a day on which I could afford one.
That day has since come.
But man, that was painful.
I did save a little money by ordering it from Amazon, though at that level a savings of $40 doesn't really seem like that much consolation. Okay, I saved even more than that by signing up for a free trial of Amazon Prime, allowing me to get 1 Day shipping for four bucks.
But even so.
I'm going to enjoy it immensely, and, as Scott once said, I'll "use the hell out of it."
But even so.
That was damn near a mortgage payment.
I don't have the buyer's remorse, but I am feeling the buyer's sting.
Still...yay!